Bournemouth and Poole Interfaith Environmental Conference 13th March 2007

Changes in our Environment and in particular, the world’s climate, are affecting all of us, not only those who live in areas experiencing extremes of droughts, floods, forest fires and all the other disasters that are becoming all too common now. Everyone, everywhere on the planet is being affected by changes in the weather patterns as the next 30 years threatens massive erosion of icecaps, melting of permafrost and even extinction of complete species leading to ecological instability and a downward spiral for life as we know it*. A consensus exists today across the scientific community that the changes we are experiencing in our climate is directly attributable to the build up of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, the primary contributor being C02 generated by the unrestrained burning of fossil fuels* and unless we take action now our children and their families will face disasters we cannot even begin to imagine.

On Tuesday 13th March 2007, over 80 people representing a wide variety of the Faith Communities and other concerned groups in Dorset (Jewish, Islamic, Muslim, Catholic, Quaker, Baha’i, Humanist, Buddhist, Christian Scientist, Hebrew, Church of England, United Reform Church, Baptist, Methodists and more) met together at the first Bournemouth and Poole Interfaith Environmental Conference to discuss what the different Faith Communities in Dorset could do to help ensure that the problem was well understood by everyone and to decide on what, if anything, could be done to address it locally.

Presentations from Rabbi Neil Amswych and Doctor Hani Ajinah set the stage on the massive environmental problems facing us as we go forward. Graphic as the presentations were, they still managed to convey only a small part of the picture but this was enough to galvanise all of these groups together to commit to their part in facing and addressing these issues. Together they discussed and developed ideas which would be used to help to educate themselves and others on the issues and pledged to work together as mixed faith groups to influence their local communities to take action wherever practical.

Rabbi Jeffrey Newman presented the Earth Charter (www. earthcharter.org) - a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society for the 21st century. The Earth Charter was initiated by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development and was approved in March 2000. At the Bournemouth conference there was overwhelming support for the 16 Principles which it promotes and agreement to base the goals and actions upon these principles.  Not surprisingly, a key area of the Earth Charter is “to protect and restore the integrity of Earth’s ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life”.

The conclusion of the conference was the formation of the Dorset Interface Network for Education and Action, whose primary task is to focus on the Environment, bringing all faiths together in this common cause. If you want to know more then contact Oonagh Lineham at St Catherine's and ask how you can become involved. Education is the first step to making informed decisions.

* For those who want a quick but comprehensive introduction to the planetary emergency that we are facing through global warming, Al Gore’s book (or DVD) “An Inconvenient Truth” is a frightening but easy read which brings verified facts to your attention without spin or slight of hand. A very easy way to become informed quickly.

*In a massive study conducted by the University of California and published in Science magazine, a random 10% (928) of all peer-reviewed science journal articles on global warming published over the previous ten years were analysed to see how many of the articles agreed or disagreed with the prevailing consensus on the causes of global warming. Of this sample there were none that disagreed with the prevailing consensus. In contrast to this, in a parallel study of all 636 articles published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times and the Wall Street Journal over the previous fourteen years, approximately half agreed with the consensus and half agreed with the scientifically discredited view that human beings played no part in global warming. As most people get their information from reading newspapers, it’s easy to see why there is confusion.